No Streaking Allowed

Went to the game last and it is not good for my blood pressure. I was boiling for three quarters of that game last night. If jordan sticks with his starters for a normal amount of time we win going away. Instead he insists on being completely outcoached. He let's o'brien dictate the game and blows another one.

It is PAINFUL to go to sixers games with this coach. Not this team, not these players, this COACH.

STEFANSKI!!!!!!!! Do you hear us??? ED jr. are you reading this? The time is now. Enough is enough. You are abusing our loyalty and wasting away your core.

I just don't understand this coach. He sees and effective starting lineup/bench adjustment in two games and then completely neglects to stick with it.
A normal coach would've called a time out and made an adjustment to Lou getting abused defensively.
Jordan was clearly given commands from above, yet still finds ways to coach to his liking = loss.
Why does he still have his job?
Why are there rumors of trades involving their best players when the problem clearly is not with them?

"Why are there rumors of trades involving their best players when the problem clearly is not with them?"

The reason we're a bad team isn't our best players, but the reason we'll probably never be a great team is that we have all this money tied up in our best players, and our best players aren't good enough to make us a great team. Arguably.

Well it can't be proven but a persuasive arugment (at least one that persuades me) goes like this

1. Age variance - Brand is near the end of his peak - Iguodala may be in the middle of his but everyone else is quite far from the end of there's.
2. Capped out luxury tax fearing franchise - even if there were pieces available to add to put the sixers over the hump - the owners won't do it
3. The best players still like an inherent something that takes a team over the age
4. (2) means that your best defensive anchor will most likely be gone before the end of next season to avoid that luxury tax
5. Bench is key to winning a title - and the sixers bench while better with the adjustment in the starting lineup isn't that good yet - Kapono isn't that 'sniper' you need and there's real no 'dfensive' stopper in the back court (or in the front court really) on the bench

My point was, it's not really the best players that make the team great. That's not the only factor. There are many other factors. You actually compiled a decent list of what this team is lacking.
The problem starts with management and its inherent fear of luxury tax. Whatever Brand and Iguodala are lacking in, we might see some signs of development in the younger players. Some people just tend to think we should go after one guy who can give us everything, if only that were always possible.
I wouldn't throw everything away just yet, although losing certainly gives fans that mentality.
As far as our bench is concerned, I like the new bench, if they were to mostly get bench player minutes and if five of them didn't play all at once.
To make a good team great, sometimes token bench players are some of the last additions. I'm not as concerned about the bench now as I am seeing our rookie develop and seeing if he's worth keeping and who can excel off of his talent.

At least EJ is continuing his poor coaching. No doubt the GM is trying to get through the year with him but if he continues this incompetence that may not be possible. Jimmy may be running this team soon.

I was trying to figure out how many ways Eddie Jordan is a bad coach, and it's mind-boggling how long the list is:
1. over-emphasis on offense over defense
2. unwillingness to play to the strengths of his personnel
3. strange lineups that force his team into automatic defensive mismatches (e.g., Lou/AI backcourt)
4. inconsistent substitution patterns
5. inability to sense the right player to substitute
6. inability to make in-game adjustments (e.g., stuck with Brand on Granger to start the 3rd)
7. inability to call timeouts in timely fashion (e.g., 2nd quarter last night)
8. inability to sense when a player is killing the team and needs to be taken out (e.g., Thad last night)

But with that long list, the most egregious failing in my mind, the one that will eventually cause him to lose this team, is:

9. passes the blame to his players

This quote from last night (reported in Kate's story) is hard to believe:That's a not-in-the-boxscore thing that we didn't have. We didn't have the energy and we didn't have the enthusiasm and the camaraderie that we need to sort of fight back. And we didn't make many plays. If you have that energy and that camaraderie, then it gives you a little bit more confidence that your teammates are behind you and they're pushing you.

I think Allen [Iverson] is the only guy, and maybe Elton [Brand] a little bit here and there, Allen is the only guy who has a positive voice out there with some confidence and some encouragement.

You know, last I checked, winning breeds camaraderie. And on this level, energy and encouragement can't overcome a talent deficit (otherwise, the Sixers should start Willie Green and Jason Smith) and physical mismatches (no amount of encouragement would have enabled Lou Williams to guard Dahntay Jones).

Say what you want about Mo Cheeks, but he never, ever threw his players under the bus to the press, which is why they played hard for him to the end.

Eventually we will all look back at this year with EJ as coach and wonder what the hell was going on.

In my mind EJ is a very temporary problem (at least I hope he is.) My bigger worry is the catastrophic damage ES could do in the next few weeks if he trades away Iguodala for one year of cap relief. That would send the Sixers down the road to Clipperdom, which is even worse than their current purgatory of mediocrity.

There are 2 teams fairly even in talent with us who seem are performing up to their potential. Memphis and Charlotte. So, Ed S has to ask "Where would we be with good coaching?" If the answer is .500 or better is it worth blowing up?

You can theoretically keep your pieces and add on more talent with the brand iguodala core as they are here for a loooong time. You can keep Dalembert for the final year, hopefully unload thad or lou williams and make a tighter rotation with a tighter defensive-minded coach. It's not as risky, but I think its safe to say we know what that ceiling is if our draft pick slot this year is below 10. The best case scenario was when San Antonio had a good team, but an injured Robinson led to a Tim Duncan pick. If we don't get that lucky, then you have to systematically add talent from second round picks, d-league acquisitions, and underrated free agent pieces to build a 'team'. This is what separates good GMs from bad ones. The question, as always is, do we trust AI9 and Brand to take us to the promised land with a good defensive minded team around them?

So that takes us where, 50 win ceiling but more likely 35 wins and several years of 1st round playoff exits?

I guess if you see a core of Iguodala/Brand/Jrue/Lou/Speights/Thad as grwoing into a contender then patience is in order. I do not see a potential contender at any point with that nucleus + minor additions, so Id like to see major changes.

How many years does EJ have on his contract? What do you guys think are viable options for coaches if we'll be paying for two? I'd be interested if we looked at hiring assistant coaches from successful teams looking to prove something. suggestions?

I think it's clear that he's saying he had a good game tonight. Of course he doesn't acknowledge that he was the cause of that good game. Even the Pacers announcers seemed bewildered by our letting Dahntay back Lou down twenty times.

Eddie Jordan's comments after the game are enough to fire him immediately........I'm sure there are several players who would love to have a private chat with the coach......what a buffoon.......even the Cooney over at Philly.com is give him heat for his lineups.....he's got to go....if they blow up this team because of Eddie Jordan that'll be the most annoying move in the history of the franchise..this guy has completely blown the morale of this team....nice job coach...sheesh

Any way we could start some sort of a movement for action? Anyone have some ideas about what might get noticed?

The basic premise, I think: Fire EJ or Fire Yourself.

Ed Stefanski may be lousy GM, but he is not a complete idiot and he knows a little bit about basketball. He KNOWS EJ is a disaster. I'm CERTAIN he regrets hiring him.

The only premise I can get my mind around is that he thinks the price for acknowledging the mistake and firing EJ is higher than the price of keeping him. Would some sort of fan revolt change that equation?

We're already not going to the games so clearly poor attendance and ugly loses are not enough. Any thoughts?

Well that was a massive weather disaster - i admire you guys makinng the game - but just seeing the games on tv - there's a lot of empty seats - heck i'd let people move down to make it seem less crowded

LOL... How 'bout public displays throughout the city of Philadelphia... you know, people hanging "Fire Eddie Jordan" banners from office buildings, bridges, etc. That would be incredibly sweet... and potentially effective. It would probably make the evening news and it's hard to believe it wouldn't get Stefanski's attention.